If you are one of our readers who enjoy doing unusual things, the next time you drive west from Hollidaysburg on old U.S. 22, park your car at the first railroad bridge which crosses the highway as it begins to climb the grade of the Allegheny Front. Walk south through the woods for about 50 yards and you will find yourself standing on the right-of-way of the old Allegheny Portage Railway.

For the hiker, here is an interesting route to follow to the summit of the escarpment at Cresson. We made the climb many years ago. Although it was not easy, it was rewarding. Trees had fallen over the grade to block the ascent. Old crumbling masonry required detours. Bridges no longer accorded passage over ravines and streams had to be forded.

However, the full appreciation of this old railroad cannot be acquired until you follow the exact route along which canal boats used to be hauled through the forests, up the Allegheny Front, a century and a half ago. (Today these conditions have been rectified but the grade is still steep.)

We told last week how the canal commissioners of Pennsylvania selected the Juniata route for the Pennsylvania Canal. In 1828 they came to the conclusion that no route over the Alleghenies could be constructed on an all-water basis. The mountains had to be crossed by rail, but the canal idea was kept uppermost in their reasoning. Because of the steepness of the grade over the Allegheny Front it was decided to make use of a series of inclined planes up which, the canal boats mounted on flat cars, could be hauled by stationary engines and a winding cable over a drum. This would make possible the transporting of freight and passengers without having to load and unload several times.

In 1831, the construction of this railroad was authorized. It was to be the connection link between the eastern and western divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal and was planned to operate between Hollidaysburg at the foot of the Allegheny Front and the Conemaugh River where it cuts through Laurel Ridge.

It became a triumph of engineering. A total of 10 inclined planes were constructed through thick stands of virgin timber, over steep grades, across many streams. The total length of the planes was almost five miles, climbing 2,000 feet of the escarpment. At one place a tunnel was necessary, 900 feet long. It was the first railroad tunnel built in America and was built in record time. In November 1833, the first passengers were transported over the Portage Railway.

This railway was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Most Europeans who visited America made it a point to cross the Alleghenies on the Portage Railway.

However the railroad, like the whole system of state-owned canals of which it was a part, failed to lure business away from the Erie Canal. New York continued to forge ahead of Philadelphia for it was cheaper and easier access to the markets of the Midwest.

That railroad also failed to make any money. It was too slow. And graft and mismanagement in Harrisburg did not help. In the end, the Pennsylvania Railroad with its Horseshoe Curve over the Allegheny Front, eliminated the need for the Portage Railroad and it was abandoned.

It is too bad that the railroad could not have been preserved as a tourist attraction. Like the Switchback in Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe), it was discarded without any thought for posterity.